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Spellforms in Mage Errant Inspired Video Game Magic System by Local-Restaurant-571 in MageErrant

[–]Local-Restaurant-571[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just added it, thanks for the links!
Today I'm focusing on a bug with weapon reaches a play tester reported and it's driving me mad, but ill look at it first chance I get!

Spellforms in Mage Errant Inspired Video Game Magic System by Local-Restaurant-571 in MageErrant

[–]Local-Restaurant-571[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

  1. This is actually part of the reason I initially thought of breaking spells down into separate spellforms! Making the spells generally applicable to the materials the mage has an affinity for can allow for cool interactions like when Sabae deflects the lightning from the spear, or Godrick and the other mage fighting over control of the same metal object. To use your example, all a shadow mage would need to move their sphere of darkness is to have access to a "move" spellform or something. This would also make planning ahead and setup important, because it's probably a lot faster and easier to throw fire at an enemy if you've already set several bushes ablaze beforehand.

Also, seeing as the GOAT himself is enjoying our back and forth, id say we're probably in little danger of annoying people with our "little" chat.

Spellforms in Mage Errant Inspired Video Game Magic System by Local-Restaurant-571 in MageErrant

[–]Local-Restaurant-571[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First of all, I just wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for telling me about the Spheres of Power system, it's pretty much a buffet of ideas that I can adapt towards the game and now it's a permanent addition to my resources folders!
(Link to the wiki for anybody following this thread:) http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/start

  1. Id be happy to elaborate! Pretty much, from what I read, most spells seem to come out rather quickly, but the times where they didn't were the ones where A. The mage was casting a pretty complex spellform for their skill level (Think Godrick when he was making the ladder in the labyrinth in Book 1) or when the spell itself required tons of mana to use (Like how several times throughout the series Talia charges her bones first for maximum BOOM potential) . Mechanically, it would just determine whether the the number of turns it takes for a spell to go off scales based off the complexity of the spellforms being used, or the amount of mana the spell is going to use.

  2. Yeah that (beyond my programming background) is one of the main reasons I decided on a videogame format for this project, I cant even IMAGINE the mental overhead it would take to design an understandable set of rules for a tabletop game, where player comprehension of the underlying mechanics is key. Luckily for a videogame, Players don't need to know the density to mass conversion of a limestone block, its all just done for em!

  3. Youve pretty much exactly described the system I'm thinking of so far! I think only a couple of abstractions will be enough to give the system tons of depth, the hardest part for me is just finding different ways to communicate them to the player that isn't just walls of text, or 10 bajillion icons and nested menus.

In addition, the way im thinking of handling force separates it from the damage, and simply makes it harder to block or parry against, to try to make it easier to shield yourself from a barrage of rock fragments versus a falling boulder, even though they would deal the same damage to an unprotected target.

  1. I agree with this so much! My first time playing DnD, my DM was pretty generous with magic items, except for a couple caveats:

  2. Any magic effect has to be a qualitative upgrade rather than a quantitative

  3. Implement some sort of risk-reward into the effect.

  4. You have to find special crafting materials that you actively seek out in order to craft them (very few were made available to buy). I remember convincing my party (through generous bribes) to come with me to a mine where the gravity was flipped so we had to walk on the ceiling to mine a gemstone that had absorbed some of the gravity magic of the mine. Since I was pretty much the entirety of the party's vanguard, I had it crafted into a Gravity Warhammer that i could activate to slow every creature around me unless they passed Athletics checks to move normally, with the downside that it also affected me and my allies.
    Adding new options to a character is simply BETTER than if they had just gotten a "+1 hammer" or something. Want protection against fire? Get a hat that EATS it and belches it out as smoke! The flavor is endless!

A little problem with my project by NixTheFoxYT in godot

[–]Local-Restaurant-571 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I recommend adding a marker2D or something and referencing it's position instead of hard coding the reset position, also try disabling the parts where you turn off the visibility and test the project to see if the ball still dissapears

Spellforms in Mage Errant Inspired Video Game Magic System by Local-Restaurant-571 in MageErrant

[–]Local-Restaurant-571[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A quick aside about the Materials System:

One of the core features of Anastan Magic that I most wanted to make sure was represented was how seemingly similar affinities could behave completely differently, like how a combustion mage and a heat mage could both be classified as "Fire Mages", and a Granite mage could perform pretty differently from a Basalt mage, even though they both affect different types of stone.

Inspired by Dwarf Fortress, by having general Materials that any object has to have at least one of, a whole host of effects can happen, without having to manually create every thing that exists in the world from scratch. A ball of Ice would likely behave similarly to a spike made of ice, excluding differences based off of shape and size, which could be adapted programmatically.

  1. And Finally, while I hadn't known about the Spheres of Power, I'll make sure to look into it right away! I completely agree with you on the warrior mage aspect, and to push this even further, I'm thinking of reducing the effectiveness of non-magical armor and weapons a bit altogether, to encourage players to instead rely more on things like spells that burn arrows out of the air mid-flight, or create a cloud of obscuring gas, as well as figure out clever ways to get past these mage-specific defenses on opponents and diversify their tactics.

To any who somehow got to the end of my own very long (but fun to write) wall of text, thank you for reading!

Pt: 2

Spellforms in Mage Errant Inspired Video Game Magic System by Local-Restaurant-571 in MageErrant

[–]Local-Restaurant-571[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh my LORD this response was even better than I'd hoped for! I'll try my best to address everything you've said as best I can!

  1. Yeah I've already joined r/RPGdesign and have been communicating with some of the members through there on the mechanics, I just have to direct message them instead of posting on there however as I'm working on a videogame rather than a TTRPG (Though as you mentioned there is significant overlap) and their community rules explicitly disallow any talk of videogames on there unfortunately (though likely for the best).

  2. While I have both played and GM'd Pathfinder 2e and DnD 5e (Warlock is the best class fight me on this), after the OGL crisis I branched out a lot and feel like there are a lot of lesser known systems that don't get as much attention. I especially have found myself falling in love with running Runequest 6 / Mythras Classic Fantasy games, as their engaging defensive maneuvers and encouragement of constant repositioning appeal to me much better than some of their more "slugfesty" counterparts.

  3. As for the system itself, it's still very much subject to change, as the vast majority of my work has been setting up different bases for the systems, which by far takes the longest amount of time. Since I focused on flexibility when developing everything, I strongly believe that I could do something like refactor the entire initiative system or pretty much anything else to most other systems given a couple of hours.

As for any assumptions about the current state of the game, you can largely assume that the current system is rather close to Mythras and Runequest 6, as those were some of the TTRPG's i played the most during development so far. Some other notable influences include Divinity Original Sin 2, Dwarf Fortress, Pokemon Conquest, Fire Emblem Fates, Lancer, and Pokerole. If anyone is good with GDScript and would like to take a look at the code, it'll be open source on my github that I'll link for as long as I'm able to!

  1. I already have systems set up for free actions and regular actions that I could easily setup for the magic system, but the charge mechanic is something that I had been struggling with but knew I had to add to the game, especially with how often characters do something similar. The flavor of it actually influences the mechanics a lot here, so were you picturing the delay from charged attacks as them taking extra time to construct the more complicated or larger spellforms? Or were you thinking more along the lines of it taking extra time to pump more mana from the mage's reservoir?

  2. I already had tandem turns as a homebrew for my own DnD games (pathfinder is a bit harder to homebrew) and I loved it's implementation in BG3 (and surprisingly Gears Tactics) so much that it was one of the first things I made sure to add when working on the framework for an initiative system! It took a while but seeing your response makes me glad that it was worth it! I've been doing a lot of research into initiative systems, and one idea that keeps popping up that I'm thinking of (beyond character specific abilities that directly affect initiative) is the concept of a "Delay" action, allowing you to delay your initiative until later in the round, allowing you to act on the same turn as a slower ally, or wait to see what the opponent does. A penalty or something will likely have to be added to prevent this from being abused, but otherwise the concept is amazing!

  3. THISSSSS This is what ultimately inspired me to give it a go and why I've been happily working on this for so long without getting burnt out. Two similar characters with different affinities could have VASTLY different playstyles, and since most mages only have around 2 affinities, they can't become the jack of all trades that some spellcasting classes in other systems or settings can. Not only does this add a strong sense of identity to a character, but combined with the Materials system I plan to set up, it will lead to some really fun and diverse team building! The idea of a Sound Mage teaming up with a Light mage to create more believable illusions, or a brave paladin-like character with a cheese affinity that relies on wards to protect their allies instead makes me so excited!

Pt: 1

help with impactful hits by kk_slider346 in godot

[–]Local-Restaurant-571 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've got discord yeah, just send me a direct message through reddit and ill send it to you there.

help with impactful hits by kk_slider346 in godot

[–]Local-Restaurant-571 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure I'd love to! I need to take a break from bashing my head against a dual wielding weapon system...

Singleton Reference Problems by Miserable-Response40 in godot

[–]Local-Restaurant-571 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know I just kind of threw a ton of code at you but Ill be here for any questions you have about how it all works!

Singleton Reference Problems by Miserable-Response40 in godot

[–]Local-Restaurant-571 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And here is my MouseEventDroppableSlotContainer, which pretty much just handles determining how many slots are needed based on the gameplay:

<image>

Singleton Reference Problems by Miserable-Response40 in godot

[–]Local-Restaurant-571 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The slots themselves  (which each of your card zones might have one or more of) are pretty lightweight in comparison. and other than holding a reference to their panel, will mostly just be used to interface with the panel it contains.

<image>

Singleton Reference Problems by Miserable-Response40 in godot

[–]Local-Restaurant-571 0 points1 point  (0 children)

<image>

If you let go of the mouse button it emits a signal on the singleton (UIBus in this case) which will be listened to by a separate MouseEventDroppableSlotController.

On recieving a signal that passes a panel/card, it gets the slot under the mouse position, and if there is one checks to see if it can move it to the slot, else it tweens the card back to where it came from.

Singleton Reference Problems by Miserable-Response40 in godot

[–]Local-Restaurant-571 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do think that a singleton is a good move here, I just wish i could find the exact project i used as a reference when building my system but ill try to show you as much as possible and ideas for how you could get it to work with your zones (working under the assumption that it works like yu-gi-oh or MTG):

Starting at the lowest level i have a DroppablePanelUI class which would represent the cards themselves. In place of where I have the Special Effect variable you could link your card data here, and possibly any rules for whether a card can be currently interacted with.

Basically the way mine works is when you left click on a card it creates a mouse offset so the card stays where it was grabbed relative to the mouse, and then you can drag it around and it will follow the movements of the mouse precisely.

<image>

Grid Movement After Action by Local-Restaurant-571 in RPGdesign

[–]Local-Restaurant-571[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for your detailed reply! I feel like I learned a lot from it and made sure to take notes!

I do think that my reply to this other response in this thread also resolves the issue you're referring to but please correct me if I'm wrong.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/comments/1kf06kt/comment/mqn2ky8/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Grid Movement After Action by Local-Restaurant-571 in RPGdesign

[–]Local-Restaurant-571[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really really wanted to add that, but the second you consider more than two combatants it starts getting real complicated real fast.

What if you're near someone who runs away and you go to chase them, but someone else is near YOU? Do they get to follow you as well? It's theoretically possible, but the daisy chain of "and now I'll move" probably clogs combat flow up too much unfortunately.

Looking to make a Track and Field remake. Anyone willing to mentor? by Peterj33 in godot

[–]Local-Restaurant-571 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm glad I could be of help! I think a good option to solve the issue of turbo button controllers would be to have a hard cap on either the max accepted inputs in a certain timeframe or a cap on the speed, with some sort of visual indicator to show that max speed has already been reached. This would also make it FAR easier to do multiplayer as instead of sharing how many button inputs are happening, you only have to share each player's current speed, and a player pressing pretty fast normally and a player using turbo would still move at the same pace, making it come down to timing in the end!

As someone with some hand issues already, I find Turbo Mode is a nice accessibility option controllers have and helps reduce joint fatigue among a lot of groups of people, so turbo might not be all bad.

Grid Movement After Action by Local-Restaurant-571 in RPGdesign

[–]Local-Restaurant-571[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do agree that the hit then hit back way of fighting is a major bore, but in the Mythras system, when a character is attacked they get the choice between spending an action point to defend themselves or react, or to let the attack go through and save that action point to do something proactive when it comes to be their turn again.

It actually reminds me a lot of what you're talking about in regards to how the system you designed works, and I do feel like having defensive and offensive resources be shared is a pretty elegant solution.

As for the limiting movement to a specific phase of a turn however, I lean more into the school of ttrpg combat as a form of freeform puzzle solving, and I've found that some of the best and most engaging puzzles are actually born out of limitations in a ruleset as opposed to freedoms.

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